


fingertip pushups

by asynchrony



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Character Study, Gen, random wikipedia reference, the author is moderately fit and cannot do a single fingertip pushup
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:16:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29713596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asynchrony/pseuds/asynchrony
Summary: A treatise on discipline, by Koganegawa Kanji.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 34
Collections: Datekou Week 2021





	fingertip pushups

**Author's Note:**

> for datekō week day 1: first-years.

"Finger training," Kageyama says. He says a lot of other things, and Koganegawa absorbs most of it, but he's mostly thinking that Kageyama must be feeling a lot less scary these days if he's willing to help, and that that's really nice. He's happy for him. It's not fun feeling scary, like that one time he made a lady cry by walking too close behind her.

"Finger training? I'm gonna start doing finger training right away," he vows.

* * *

_fingertip pushup count: -1_

Koganegawa tries out the whole fingertip pushup thing the very next time they have practice. It's hard! He can't figure out moving while balancing on his fingers, so he drops his palms. Maybe if he remembers what a regular pushup is like, he can concentrate on the finger training bit.

Except that's also hard today. He's two pushups in when his left wrist kinda starts to hurt, and he slumps to the ground like a really tall slug. Long, maybe, since he's lying down.

Sakunami comes over and squats by him. He moves so quietly Koganegawa doesn't realize he's there until he starts talking, and he nearly hits his head on the floor from surprise.

"You're putting all your weight into your wrists," he says.

"I'm doing normal pushups," Koganegawa explains. "Once I get them right, I'll move on to fingertip ones. Finger training, like Kageyama said."

Sakunami nods. Koganegawa likes that about him, that he understands things. "But normal pushups _are_ finger training, if you do them a special way."

A secret weapon! Maybe it'll hurt less! Koganegawa pushes himself back up off the floor, like a slug with arms and legs. "Show me?"

Sakunami's a really good teacher. He gets Koganegawa back into pushup position, then shows him how to press down through all his fingers all the way through the pushup. It's a whole lot more work, but he feels less wobbly. Almost like all his strength is collecting in his fingers and he has to concentrate to make sure he doesn't kamehameha his way off the floor.

"Whoa," Koganegawa says, when his hands get too stiff to continue. He sits up, beaming at Sakunami. "Where'd you learn that?"

"Yoga," Sakunami says, folding himself into a pretzel.

* * *

_fingertip pushup count: 0.5_

"So how are you going with that finger training thing?" Futakuchi asks, a week later.

"It sucks," Koganegawa says honestly. "It hurts." He guides his right knee into a supine twist and grimaces at the way his spine crunches. "But! I'm gonna keep doing it."

From upside down, Futakuchi looks surprised, or maybe unsure. "About that. I'm sorry I said you wouldn't last three days." He says it really quickly, and something about being all twisted up means it takes Koganegawa a moment to understand it. Gravity is bad for words.

"Oh, that's okay!"

"I'm your captain," Futakuchi says. "It was kinda mean of me."

Koganegawa switches sides. Less crunching this way, maybe because he's already all crunched out. It means Futakuchi has to move to look at him. "I don't think you were mean," he says. "Like, the kids in my class who call me Overbite-kun are being kinda mean, cause I can't help that, and sometimes I have nightmares where a ball hits me in the face and my teeth deflate it and then the whole team gets suspended for a new kind of rule breaking. But I wanna get stronger! And I've proven you wrong! Which means you helped me get stronger."

"I guess that makes sense," Futakuchi says slowly. "Still, though. Moniwa wouldn't have said it."

"If Moniwa-senpai was still captain, I wouldn't get to play," Koganegawa points out. Futakuchi isn't as good at understanding things as Sakunami, but that's okay. "I like playing, and I like that you're captain."

Futakuchi blinks for a moment, then sighs. "Do you want to show me how far you've gotten with the pushups? Maybe I can give you some tips."

Koganegawa brightens. "I can push myself up from the floor on my fingertips! But the lowering part is hard."

"Ah, that's a core strength thing." Futakuchi shoots a dirty look at the planking competition going on across the gym, so Koganegawa looks over as well. Onagawa's collapsed on the floor, panting, and Fukiage's arms are shaking, but Sakunami's humming a little tune with a look on his face that's honestly kinda scary. "It's harder when you're so tall, but let's see what we can do."

* * *

_fingertip pushup count: 2, almost_

It turns out that you use your whole body when you do a pushup. Not even in the obvious way: your whole body is moving, sure, but there's a million muscles you have to think about it if you wanna do it right.

Koganegawa's learning lots of things from this finger training stuff! Like that Fukiage reads bodybuilding forums and anatomy textbooks in his free time, and he thinks some of these skills are things you practice standing up first before you do the pushup, because muscle memory applies to things that aren't blocking.

"Try to pull your shoulder blades all the way down. Like you're putting them in your back pockets," Fukiage says.

Koganegawa tries it out. "I don't have back pockets in these shorts," he says. "And they don't really reach, but they feel like they're way closer than I thought!"

Fukiage smiles back at him. It's kind of an awkward smile, but he seems really happy. "It feels weird for sure. Now try tensing your abs, like Aone's about to punch you in the stomach."

Koganegawa pictures it for a moment and feels his entire front lock up in fear. With the nonexistent-back-pockets thing, his torso is... really tight and straight now?

"My torso feels really tight and straight now," he informs Fukiage.

"Remember that feeling," Fukiage tells him, "and try that push-up again."

Fukiage gives him like twenty other tips every time he figures one out: squeezing his thighs inward, pulling his heels backward, curling his fingers a bit like claws so they don't bend the wrong way, making sure his neck is long (it's always long!). They're all kind of helpful? It's a lot, when he thinks about them all at once.

"That's why you go slow," Fukiage says.

Which makes sense. "Going slow is hard, though!"

"It is," Fukiage agrees. "Going slow makes you extra strong for when you're ready to go fast, though."

"Whoa," Koganegawa says. "You know so much! It's really cool."

Fukiage goes kinda pink. "I just read lots. You should join that one forum I like. Add me if you do." He scribbles the website address and something else on a piece of paper, and passes it over.

"Jingo_Whales," Koganegawa sounds out, double-checking the English letters. "That's you?"

He goes even pinker. "That's me."

* * *

_fingertip pushup count: 6_

So maybe Koganegawa got a bit distracted by the whole pushups thing and forgot about the end goal. But it's okay! Fingertip pushups are cool, and make him feel strong, and feeling strong makes him play better.

"You've got a lot less finger tape on," Moniwa says, the next time he stops in to watch them play.

"Yeah!" Koganegawa says. "I've been doing finger training, cause Kageyama said he does it, and he doesn't ever tape his fingers, and a millimetre of distance from the ball is too much, and a bunch of other stuff. Discipline and things! I can do six whole fingertip pushups in a row! It doesn't hurt to set lots of times in one game!"

Moniwa nods, wearing that little thinking face on that Sakunami gets sometimes. Maybe it's a short people thing, that they're smarter because they don't hit their heads as hard if they trip over their own shoelaces.

"Fingertip pushups, huh? Those are probably really good for your coordination. You're moving with a lot more confidence, I can see that."

"You can?" Kageyama's cool and all, but Moniwa is his senpai, and he's so worried all the time, and it's probably good if he's less worried about Koganegawa.

"Absolutely." Moniwa smiles at him, and it's kind of like getting smiled at by a celebrity or something. "It sounds like you're doing well building up strength and body awareness. There's quieter parts to finger training too, though."

"Like what?" Koganegawa says, then the word _quieter_ processes, so he says it again but whispers it.

Moniwa shakes his head. "I'll bring you a nail file and scissors tomorrow. Maybe some compression gloves for at night, if you'd fit my old pairs. Some balm." He takes Koganegawa's hand between his and turns it over, running his fingers over the knuckles. "You won't be sixteen forever. The better you look after your hands now, the better they'll serve you as an adult."

"You think I can keep playing after high school?" Koganegawa asks, awed.

"Yes! I mean, you'll need to use your hands for other things too, but I think you can play for as long as you want to. As long as it's fun for you."

"Getting better is fun!" Koganegawa says. "I'm gonna make you proud, I promise."

"You already have," Moniwa says, reaching up to ruffle his hair.

* * *

_fingertip pushup count: ten, but only if done really quickly_

Watching Karasuno at Nationals with his team is great, actually. It's pretty cool, rooting for people he kinda considers friends! Futakuchi says they're officially watching it so they can learn all the strategies that actually work against Karasuno for the upcoming year, but Koganegawa catches him cheering at a really cool block Tsukki makes about ten minutes in, so it's all okay.

Nationals is full of lots of other awesome players! Maybe he's not getting many strategies out of watching it, at least for the whole team or for against Karasuno, but he can see how the different setters play. Some of them are quick and sneaky in a way he knows he's not, but others do things he'll replay in the evenings on half-speed to figure out.

Futakuchi says he doesn't have the brains for it, but he says that like he talked about the finger training thing. Koganegawa knows him well enough to know that's how he talks when he wants to believe in people.

"I'm willing to dedicate my mind as well as my body to the Iron Wall," Koganegawa announces, puffing out his chest.

Futakuchi muffles a laugh. Sakunami puts his tiny hand on top of Koganegawa's. "That's admirable of you," he says.

The next time he gets up to go to the bathroom, Aone gives him a thumbs up and a nod that's even got a bit of a smile. That feels even better than watching Karasuno score, again and again.

"Next time, it'll be us," he hears Fukiage say as the door closes behind him, low and fervent. "Next time."

Koganegawa tucks his fingers into fists and makes a tiny motion of victory, like Kageyama gets to do all the time lately. It feels good.

 _Next time,_ he decides. _I'll be ready._

**Author's Note:**

> this fic can be retweeted [here.](https://twitter.com/emdashing/status/1371192152500355072)


End file.
